These lame brains who deem themselves educators should be given a taste of their own medicine, by trying to learn the Arabic, Thai, Japanese, and or Russian scripts with pictures relating to the written word, and see how well they do at guessing, and how literate they will have become after about a dozen years of this method.
I have to wonder what this summer camp costs the taxpayers.  We pay for regular school, remedial help, summer camps now, and remedial work at the college and university level.  The only positive outcome from all of this money spent is that the employees get higher salaries and benefits than they ever would in the private sector..

Presumably you’ve heard of Daniels and Diack’s ‘Royal Road Readers’ published by Chatto and Windus (1954)?

They were phonics-based, and used by Mona McNee, founder of the UK RRF, to teach her son to read -he has Down’s Syndrome.

what appears quite obvious to me when reading the piece on the London board’s “summer camp” style reading classes is it’s likely that the same methods are being used that got these kids and their parents in early trouble in the first place.

To me it’s a state statement that essentially lets the system off the hook from getting reading right in the first place with proven effective programs like phonics.

The the London boards sees this as some sort of success is rather rich.

OK, I take it back. I guess there is a Royal Road to Reading after all! 

I couldn’t resist—the picture says it all, but there is actually a story and video that goes with it.  (notice the road veers to the left…)

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/yahoocanada/100811/canada/america_s_educational_system_captured_in_a_single_photo

My favorite part of the article is how reading the pictures is so helpful-for those of you who don`t know my work-this is sarcasm.

I know it is repetitious of my postings but teachers are so unknowledgeable about teaching children to read and spell and so skewed due to their teacher training B.ED.where they are originally brainwashed to believe that children will learn through osmosis and reading pictures and that it will happen in a split second-the breakthrough moment-yes reading “cat” will be a breakthrough moment but what about reading the word
catastrophe or superstitious or imagination-they read the first 2 letters or 3 letters and then they are tested for reading comprehension because it`s a low score-they can`t understand what they read-because they CANNOT read-nor spell.

God help us all.

Must be repeated again,

“I know it is repetitious of my postings but teachers are so unknowledgeable about teaching children to read and spell and so skewed due to their teacher training B.ED.where they are originally brainwashed to believe that children will learn through osmosis and reading pictures and that it will happen in a split second-the breakthrough moment-yes reading “cat” will be a breakthrough moment but what about reading the word
catastrophe or superstitious or imagination-they read the first 2 letters or 3 letters and then they are tested for reading comprehension because it`s a low score-they can`t understand what they read-because they CANNOT read-nor spell.”

Osmosis, is a favourite word tossed around by parents. Even I have used the word, in teacher-parent interviews to get the targeted reading help for my child, to no avail. If she did get it in the primary grades, it would be doubtful she would be classified as LD as she is today. But since she was, it was the only way to get some help for her reading and writing problems.

The article stated, “Teachers originally put together 200 parent loot bags, but had to rush out and make more because of the overwhelming response, he said.

Each loot bag includes a dry-erase whiteboard, modelling compound, alphabet beads, alphabet stamps and a small bag of sand — items that can be used to help kids learn to read without all the work, say kindergarten teachers Rhonda Springer and Allison Alderson, who’ve been running the parent sessions.

“Ditch the paper and pencils. Your child is more likely to learn to read when it’s fun,” said Springer, arranging alphabet pretzels into words at Strathroy’s North Meadows elementary school, one of nine literacy camp sites.”

This is a major complaint that I have with the public education system, on not giving parents information that is helpful at home, in helping their children. For that matter, other public agencies as well are often neglecting the need to communicate to parents information that would actually help to make more parents engaged in their children’s lives, and less reliance on the public institutions.

Using items such as what is mentioned in the article, a dry-erase whiteboard, modelling compound, alphabet beads, alphabet stamps and a small bag of sand, are quite common in households with children who have special needs. As a LD parent, I have used the same items, and other different items, to help my child to learn. But I would not call it fun, nor would my child call it a fun activity. It was born out of necessity in my household, because the school’s reading instruction program was not providing the correct instruction. Instead of learning sounds, my child developed the capacity to memorized words, and did not developed the ability to sound out words , until much later and well pass the primary grades and it had to be taught to her.

“Kids who see themselves as readers will become stronger readers and those who see themselves as able — at their level — will be more willing to take risks, Alderson said. The teacher beamed, recalling the back-to-school pride of one summer literacy program grad. “It was the first day of Grade 2. She ran up to me and yelled, ‘I can read now.’
“That’s what it’s about.”

Perhaps so willing to take more risks, but will the little girl quit taking risks, when she discovers on her own, that grade two work, will required more writing in sentences, and short paragraphs. Without a firm foundation in the basics of reading, including knowing how to sound out words. writing the words becomes a difficult task.

So will the summer program expand to the grade 2 and grade 3 students, who are struggling in areas of writing and comprehension?  It is one way of keeping the schools open all year long, without going to the trouble why so many grade 1 students are in need of literacy camps during the summer?

This is a major complaint that I have with the public education system, on not giving parents information that is helpful at home, in helping their children. For that matter, other public agencies as well are often neglecting the need to communicate to parents information that would actually help to make more parents engaged in their children’s lives, and less reliance on the public institutions.

The Ministry does not know how to teach Reading because the Universities don`t train the teachers so how can the above take place?

It is the blind leading the blind!

You are right, the blind leading the blind. But such simple information, that can be found anyone in literature, and on sites such as the LD ones, should be in parent’s faces. I certainly had the above stated materials for all my children, but never thought of using it for helping a child to learn, until my youngest arrive. But one would expect an education institution to provide provide this information as a regular future. Can it be only when a parent is paying, such as attending a nursery school, a parent certainly does get a boatload of information from the nursery school. It happen with my youngest, and there was not a week that went by, without the nursery teacher, giving me new ideas to promote speaking, and get her prepare for kindergarten.

Could it be, our public institutions would preferred to keep people coming back to correct things, rather than practicing prevention, by doing it right in the first place. It has more added-value, than doing things right in the first place.

By the way, I just caught up my reading on the literacy front, and in the United States, the free literacy programs and remedial programs are now being cut to save money for the districts, and in its place, are the schools to do the same thing, but at a much higher price to do it. In Canada, the same thing is happening, where soon enough it will be common for school boards to be operating the summer literacy programs, at a much higher cost, than what the local library or committed volunteers did, on a shoe-laced budget. On some of the articles, it was admitted that it would create jobs. However, I did not read anywhere on why we need the programs in the first place, besides the stock reason, that being out of school for a couple of months, students fall behind. Being out of school, is only part of the problem, and I wager there is a bigger problem, and it is in public education, and the delivery of education.